Hispanic Heritage Month, Dedicated to Les “Coach” Fernandez
Les “Coach” Fernandez inspired LatinBusinessToday, and many others before us.
Dr. Leslie Fernandez (“Coach”) amassed an incredible legacy and our mission to Inform, Inspire, Mentor & Empower. This is his story:
Coach Fernandez circa 1982
“Don’t shoot! That’s Coach’s son!”
That shout-out saved Richard Fernandez from injury, possibly even death. In the sometimes violent world inhabited by some Westchester, New York toughs, no one messed with “Coach” Leslie Fernandez – or with his police-officer son.
The reason wasn’t fear. No one feared the Coach. It was something considerably more powerful: love. If those young toughs ever loved any man, that man was Coach Fernandez.
LatinBusinessToday.com is dedicated to the memory of “Coach” Leslie Fernandez, a beloved educator remembered by many as the person who most influenced, and in some cases, transformed, their lives. Even for those who remained resistant and tough, and more outside the law than within it, Coach Fernandez’s deeply felt caring remained a meaningful experience.
While Leslie Fernandez had the prestige and position of being a teacher and head of their alternative high school, some of his former students might have been surprised to know the back story. It explains Coach’s powerful combination of deep, compassionate understanding and strength.
Born in 1927 in New York City, “Coach” Leslie Fernandez enjoyed an important gift in his life, and endured a significant cross.
The gift, an enduring one, was Fernandez’s parents’ unconditional love. No matter what he did or didn’t do, Coach always knew that Chelsie and Leslie Fernandez Sr. loved him.
But the cross, a harsh one at the time, likewise had an enduring impact. Fernandez was assessed as so academically inadequate, and particularly lacking in any language talent, that the only way he was able to get a high school diploma was by switching to a vocational high school. Fernandez’s self assessment about that period in his life is blunt: “I was a loser.”
Once free of school, Fernandez enlisted in the Army, which sent him to West Germany. The youth assessed as totally lacking in language-learning capabilities learned to speak German within a year. His follow-up assignment was as a command staff German language translator.
What made the EduCage difference?
Leslie Fernandez always remembered his parents’ unconditional love and his former coach’s confidence in his abilities. Both made a positive difference in his life. He also remembered the cross of that “loser” feeling in high school when not a single teacher looked deeper. Those experiences informed his work in creating EduCage.But there is more. There was Leslie “Coach” Fernandez himself.
As described by everyone who knew him, Leslie Fernandez, a man’s man, was also a mixture of compassion, empathy and strength. “Coach led me down a road of love and discipline,” says musician and music producer Steve Luongo. “Today when I work with other musicians, I try always to apply the lessons I learned from Coach to make them, and me, better.”
Woman with Cat sculpture by Dr. Fernandez, also an accomplished sculptor.
Author Devra Hall Levy used to walk across town from her high school, one of those typical one-size-fits-all curricula schools, to be at EduCage instead. “Coach found teachers like him: they cared about us,” she says. In addition, the small classes ensured that each student received individual attention. “All the EduCage teachers knew you, really knew you,” Levy recalls. “No one glossed over your problems, and some of us had big problems.”
Indeed, the one feeling mentioned again and again by former students, especially the self-described troubled ones, is that they felt seen and understood by Coach. For many, it was their first experience of real caring from an adult.
At the same time, former students remember that rules, discipline and expectations were part of the mix. “You knew that he loved you unconditionally,” one former student recalls. “He also had unconditional respect for each one of us, which helped us to play by the rules.”
Awards and Recognitions, Mr. Fernandez received many awards in his lifetime. Some of them include:
- Distinguished Service Award
- Brotherhood Award
- Marjorie Margolis Award
- First Citizen of Westchester Award
- Who’s Who in Education
- Proclamation by the County Executive of Westchester County: April 30, 1991 Les Fernandez Recognition
- Appointment by New York Gov. Mario Cuomo as Advisor to the committee for Alternative Education programs
Related content:
Richie Fernandez
“Coach” Les Fernandez: A Farewell
Latin Biz Today Honors a Coach Who Informed, Inspired, Mentored & Empowered [Video]